dead

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ded/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ded, inherited from Old English dēad (“having ceased to live; torpid, dull”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *daudaz,^[2][3][5] originally a past participle formed on the base of the verb that gave die.^[2][4][5] Its cognates include Old Frisian dād, Old Saxon dōd, Dutch dood, German tot and Old Norse dauðr,^[3][2][4] and Gothic has dauþs.^[3][2][5] Etymonline traces the base to Proto-Indo-European *dheu- (“to die”).^[2][6] It is related to death.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of people and animals, having ceased to live: Old English dēad, about 725 in Beowulf,^[3] or about 1000.^[9] Old English also used it of still, standing water.^[2]

Semantic evolution

“Insensible, void of perception” is from the early 13th century.^[2] Of plants it is from 1382.^[9] Of sound, “muffled”, it is from the 1520s, and of places, “inactive, dull”, from the 1580s.^[2] From the 16th century it was used to mean “utter, absolute”, as in dead drunk (1590s), and also “quite certain, unerring”.^[2] The adverb, “entirely”, is from the late 14th century,^[2] and “directly, exactly” by 1800.^[2] The noun, a dead person or the dead collectively, is Old English;^[2][4] “the most intense point”, as in the dead of night, is from the 1540s.^[2] Dead letter is from 1703, dead heat from 1796 and dead on from 1889, from marksmanship.^[2] As dead as a doornail is from late Middle English.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English dēad (Beowulf).^[3]
• early 13th century – insensible.^[2]
• late 14th century – adverb, entirely.^[2]
• 1520s – of sound, muffled.^[2]
• 1540s – the dead of night.^[2]
• 1590s – dead drunk.^[2]
• 1703 – dead letter.^[2]
• 1796 – dead heat.^[2]
• 1889 – dead on.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. No longer alive.
2. Looking as if dead; numb or unresponsive; exhausted.
3. Inanimate; not able to support life.
4. No longer in use or in force: a dead language.
5. Without activity; dull: a dead town.
6. Not working: a dead battery.
7. Complete, absolute: a dead stop.
8. Exact, unerring: dead centre.

Noun

1. (the dead) Those who have died.
2. The time of greatest intensity: the dead of winter.

Adverb

1. Absolutely, altogether: dead tired.
2. Directly, exactly: dead ahead.
3. Suddenly: stopped dead.

Word family

• deadness

Related words

• deaden
• deadly
• death
• undead
• die
• deadline

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary compares dead, the most widely used, with deceased, departed, extinct, lifeless and inanimate.^[10] In northern dialect dead also meant “death”.^[11]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)